In order to better understand how unhistorical and non-strategic Erdogan’s approach is, it is good to compare the data available in Greece and the West Bank. To comprehend where I’m going to, Greece in fact functioned under the occupation of Turkey from 1453 to 1821. This is a fact we are all aware of. Another fact is that what we now call the West Bank in the Middle East was actually under Ottoman occupation from 1517 until 1917, when it was liberated by the British. So we ought to understand the following: imagine now that Erdogan is trying to convince the Arabs that he represents them, whereas they remember very well that for so many centuries their region was in Ottoman Syria, therefore under Ottoman occupation. Therefore, it’s like we supposedly have a problem with someone who is in our region, there’s no need to name someone, it could be a theoretical context, and now you have to imagine that Erdogan is coming to explain to us that he’s going to represent us throughout the negotiations, and will be on our side against the other party, who is supposedly, his enemy. Why is it funny? Because first of all he was not exactly an enemy, because he also had military alliances with the others in the example I gave. The other factor is that because we are Christians and Erdogan is a Muslim, it is difficult to accept that this analogy does exist. But we now ought to understand that, at the demographic level and that of the population, it is very difficult for the Arabs to accept that someone who is an Ottoman Turk will come along and explain to the others that he will represent them, while they lived for so many centuries under his occupation. Therefore, with these two examples you can understand the analogy, it is obvious that Erdoğan’s argument cannot stand in the first place and cannot convince anyone, except for those who have no idea about what is going on, but you have to comprehend that it would have been the same for Greece as well , because we also have some of our own, so to speak, who refer to that period as Ottoman Greece, someone who would see it from abroad, would say, okay, he is in the right, trying to promote his own interests which are considered related to Greece, but in reality there is no relation whatsoever. Therefore, it’s exactly the same thing happening now in Palestine as well, and consequently, all that we hear from Erdogan’s side about how much he’s promoting this issue, it’s not in fact because he wants to represent them, nor is it because he respects them, it’s merely because he has himself a common goal with Iran and with Qatar and nothing else.